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"At some point it just occurred to me that that's something I would like to do," says singer-pianist Folds. "I do a lot of black-and-white printing, and I think I was in the darkroom jiggling a tray or something and I thought that we should get back together." A one-off show with his old pals for MySpace in 2008 pushed the idea of a full-on reunion closer to reality. "After that, it was just about clearing the calender."

That took four years. But now the band is full-in. After playing gigs at the Mountain Jam, Bonnaroo, and Summerfest music festivals, Folds, Sledge, and Jessee are prepping for the release of their first new studio album in 13 years, the partly fan-funded The Sound of the Life of the Mind, on September 18. Though the business model may have changed, Folds says that the core of the band's music has remained steadfast. "We don't necessarily play the way we used to," he says, "but we're smart enough to realize that we're not trying to relive anything we already did. We can just be ourselves and still have the personality that we always did. From the first take, it was just, 'Oh God, this sounds like us.' " Though, he adds, the new music "is pretty heaving sounding."